Judge keeps mum on draft ruling that would let Martinelli  off the hook

“I have nothing to say to the media,” said Supreme Court judge  Cecilio Cedalise, days after the dissemination in the media of a draft ruling that he prepared and that grants a claim of unconstitutionality to former Panama president Ricardo Martinelli in the wiretapping case which has created a legal whirlwind.

Cedalise refused to give more details to the media covering the inauguration of the XX Ibero-American Judicial Summit, taking place in Panama October 21 – 22.

Supreme Court President Luis Ramón Fábrega, said: “To draw conclusions from a project that is simply what its word indicates, a project, is to look for a problem where it does not exist.

 “You have seen what has come out in the media, I am not going to deny or confirm it,” Fabrega told reporters about the draft ruling by his colleague “The eyes of the country are always on the Court, that is nothing strange,” he added.

Fábrega remarked that the document prepared by Cedalise has not been put to a vote in the plenary session of the court and he does not believe that it will be discussed this week, as the magistrates participate in the judicial summit.

After the dissemination of the draft ruling, Cedalise sent a letter to the president of that justice corporation in which he demands criminal actions for whoever leaked the documents to the media.

The draft ruling would declare unconstitutional an oral decision, of July 4, 2018, issued by the then magistrate judge of guarantees Jerónimo Mejía. In that decision, Mejía rejected a challenge from Martinelli’s defense, which questioned the holding of an accusation hearing in the wiretapping case.